"... tithing is a commandment; you are admonished to continue to pay a full tithe regardless of your circumstances. Please do not bring us your problems, he counseled. Just follow the program and you will be blessed."
Corporate Culture Puts Too Much Stress On LDS Members
Sunday, January 27, 2002
BY JAMES E. SAWYER
Several years ago while recovering from depression, I found solace
etched on a classroom wall at the Catholic university where I work. The
inscription read: "The Glory of God is you, fully alive." Often I have
pondered the significance of what it means to be fully alive and conclude
that it is anchored in transcendence.
Recovering alcoholics, for instance, may encounter transcendence in
the realization that their lives have become utterly broken and beyond
their control. Becoming whole amid the craziness of our personal
Gethsemanes entails surrender to a higher power. It is in surrender of the
utter hopelessness of our human condition that ultimately we may discover
God's gift for us; that we may find hope in the discovery of new pathways
out of dysfunction and pain. Transcendence, I believe, is pure gift; it is
universal, it is infinite, and it is free. In my native Mormon faith,
transcendence is purchased as part of ". . . the great mediation of all men
. . ." by Jesus Christ. It is the "lightness of being" celebrated by Book
of Mormon Prophet Nephi as he emerges from melancholia: "Awake, my soul! .
. . Rejoice, O my heart . . . Men are, that they might have joy."
Utahns, however -- and perhaps Mormons in general -- appear to have
neither a corner on transcendence nor joy. A recent pharmaceutical study
reveals that the state with the highest rate of Mormon affiliation also
has the nation's highest rate of anti-depressant use. In pondering this
discontinuity, I have studied the church's control structure analogous to
the organizational studies I assign students in my graduate course on
control theory in nonprofit organizations. My hypothesis is that the
outcomes produced by some programs are at times significantly at variance
with scriptural and provident living goals. Often, rather than fostering a
culture supportive of individuals becoming fully alive, these programs
encourage male members, particularly, to endure to the end in mortal
struggles that serve the ends of the organization. Often, I believe,
depression is the outcome.
The Model: A generic example used by our class is church-related.
Organizations engage in strategic planning from time to time to refine
"mission" within the context of an operating environment. From the mission
are distilled "programs," or discrete action plans. A hypothetical church
may have as a mission statement, for instance, "saving souls." In turn,
mission is articulated with goals for each of the church's various
programs, such as Sunday school. So in this illustration the organization's
mission of saving souls is translated into a program goal of saving souls
through Sabbath instruction.
But goal-driven outcomes -- like salvation -- tend to be nonspecific
and therefore difficult to measure. So outputs are tracked instead. Outputs
are more specific and measurable than outcomes, and driven by objectives.
For instance, a measurable output objective might be to increase Sunday
school attendance 20 percent next year. After a year's operation, however,
output may have "underperformed" the target objective. The organization
may then revise the objective, or fine-tune the program so that it better
serves the objective. This cyclical process of operating, comparing actual
output with target output, revising and fine-tuning -- then operating
again -- is called "programming." In the Sunday school example,
(re)programming might be revealed in personnel reassignments, for instance,
or alternately the program objective might be revised downward, from 20
percent to perhaps 10 percent.
Note the act of faith that connects outputs (driven by the objective to
boost Sunday school attendance) with more general outcomes (driven by the
goal to save more souls). Nonprofit organizations -- churches included --
almost always operate in faith that if the requisite output is produced
(increased Sunday school attendance), then the desired outcome (saved
souls) will follow. Sometimes, however, producing outputs does not lead to
the creation of intended outcomes, suggesting that the programming process
should be revisited.
Mormon Control Structure: The modern precedent for formal church
programming systems began in the 1950s and 1960s with what was then called
Priesthood Correlation, as the church began to position itself globally.
Later, formal strategic planning in the 1970s identified a three-fold
mission: proclaiming the gospel (missionary work), perfecting the Saints
(ongoing church work), and redeeming the dead (temple work). In turn,
elements of the tripartite mission serve as outcome goals for various
church programs, such as adult Priesthood, Relief Society, youth and
children's programs, etc. An example of an outcome goal might be for all
adult Priesthood holders to be temple-endowed. An example of an output
objective connected with the same goal might be for 10 percent of unendowed
adult Priesthood holders to become endowed in any given year.
Stellar membership growth over the past half-century has led to the
decentralization of uniform, carefully packaged programs originating in
Salt Lake City, with "quality control" overseen by regional representatives
and backed up by frequent visits from general authorities. Church members
visiting any part of the world, for instance, may experience program
uniformity in that Sunday lessons delivered there are identical to those
delivered on the same Sunday back home.
Semi-annual General Conference is the venue in which members are
admonished to strive ever higher in the pursuit of gospel ideals and the
attainment of the goals of specific church programs. Conference talks,
however, tend to be short on the imposition of measurable program
objectives, such as boosting convert baptisms by a certain percentage. It
is at the local level that program objectives are set, and output is
measured and reported.
A typical ward contains about 400 members, presided over by a lay
bishop who serves approximately five years, and is the level at which most
church programs operate. It is at the stake level, however, that the
control structure becomes instrumental. Stakes typically contain seven or
eight wards, presided over by a lay president who serves for approximately
10 years and is assisted by two lay counselors, analogous to the two
counselors who assist each bishop. Also reporting to the stake president is
an oversight body -- the stake high council -- whose dozen members make
regular visits to wards to ensure conformity with standardized programs.
Stakes receive monthly reports from wards that include the number of ward
members eligible for participation in any program and the percentage not
participating. Annually a ward conference is conducted by the stake that
includes progress reviews and new target objectives for each program. For
instance, a ward with five convert baptisms in the preceding year may be
challenged to achieve 10 the next year. The performance of stakes is
assessed by regional and visiting general authorities: evaluation criteria
may include convert baptisms, percentage of stake members paying a full
church tithe, percent of males worthy to be called to stake leadership
positions, etc.
In effect, "follow the living prophet" means "follow church programs."
The progress of adult members toward mastering church programs may be
reviewed by the bishop at the annual renewal of one's temple recommend,
which adult Mormon faithful are expected to carry, regardless of proximity
to a temple. Members answer standardized questions posed by the bishop that
pertain to conformity with payment of a full church tithe and the
sustaining of the church's leadership, among others. Interview questions
are repeated in a follow-on interview with the stake president, who then
countersigns with the bishop that the member is in good standing and worthy
to be admitted to the temple. Members are also expected to attend a
year-end meeting with the bishop to declare the payment of a full church
tithe, which declaration becomes part of the permanent church record.
Faithful members sustain the church as the literal manifestation of the
Kingdom of God on Earth and pledge unwavering support for its programs and
leaders. When the several programs are administered in love by charismatic
stake and ward leaders, the "organization culture" may be buoyant,
particularly during times of expansion. But a "corporatist culture" may
also prevail, particularly in jurisdictions that fail to produce
ever-higher program outputs. For instance, during the economic recession a
decade ago, the president of a Western Washington stake chastised his
congregation in the presence of a visiting general authority. We are aware
of the economic difficulty some of you are experiencing, he observed.
However, he continued, tithing is a commandment; you are admonished to
continue to pay a full tithe regardless of your circumstances. Please do
not bring us your problems, he counseled. Just follow the program and you
will be blessed.
This arguably insensitive counsel is remarkable for two reasons. First,
particularly in austere economic times, this move-the-wagons organization
style was neither refuted nor softened by the general authority that
followed him at the podium, implying concurrence. Second, in the weeks
following the address his comments did not become the object of
recrimination by economically struggling stake members. Perhaps they
blamed themselves for not producing individual outcomes as "worthy" as
those produced by some other members, and therefore they suffered in
silence.
Mormon faithful are particularly motivated to maintain eligibility to
attend the temple, where families are "sealed" for eternity. Members are
cautioned not to "break the link" among generations of other temple-sealed
family members, and failure to qualify for attendance at marriages and
sealings may provoke emotional upheaval in the absentee's family. Indeed,
fear of the denial of temple blessings is the ultimate lynchpin in the
incentive system undergirding the church's control structure.
Mormon converts may be attracted initially by humanist messages, devoid
of the quantitative objectives awaiting them. Many, of course, look
favorably upon the engineered lifestyles that may describe their Mormon
friends and acquaintances. Once baptized, converts are immediately
introduced into the church control structure with the challenge to set a
goal and set a date for attaining it. "Set a goal, set a date" is a
corporate-style management-by-objectives strategy, the end in this case
being to make converts temple-ready within as little as a year. A danger,
of course, is that some members may attain the ultimate objective of temple
attendance without attaining the essential "A-HA" experience that is
indicative of transcendence.
Conclusions . . . and Conumdrums: An organization consultant might
recommend as follows:
1) Revise the mission statement. Redirect missionary work and temple
work from the mission to the program structure. In reconstructing the
mission, draw upon the rich fount of Mormon scripture on the universal and
transcendent nature of Christ's redemptive mission. Reach for the
inclusiveness implied in Joseph Smith's Thirteenth Article of Faith: ". . .
If there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report or praiseworthy, we
seek after these things."
2) Open up the church's control structure. Make programming more
transparent so that lay members (especially women) may also have direct
input into assessments of program effectiveness and plans for revision.
3) Relax somewhat the heavily prescriptive path for Mormon males that
universally requires Scouting and missions for the young, and through the
Priesthood establishes adult males as the locus of the church control
structure in the home. Encourage male as well as female transcendence, and
grant sufficient organizational slack to males to encourage the process of
self-discovery.
4) Perhaps borrow a chapter from the Catholics, whose hierarchical
culture also prescribes doctrinal infallibility for its leadership. Four
decades ago "Vatican II" undertook a paradigmatic soul-searching to update
the church and reposition it within its contemporary environment.
The result shifted the Mass away from Latin and turned the celebrant
priest symbolically away from the altar, toward his congregation. Arguably,
the most significant contribution of Vatican II has been to release
members somewhat from the enforced orthodoxy of their organization's
control structure, to pursue more personalized spirituality.
The conundrum, of course, is that there is no space for any significant
reorganization in the Mormon structure. The divine mission of the Mormon
church is self-evident; it is to continue to perform the work in which it
is engaged. It is a concrete undertaking. The ironclad linkage between
output, outcome and mission leaves little room for organizational
introspection, therefore little room for transcendence for those adhering
strictly to its precepts.
One might conclude that the church has painted itself into a corner.
Mormon faithful appear evermore as "organization people," clinging ever
tightly to a corporate model of working to win eternal life. In a sense,
then, the church may become a victim of its own successes. On the one hand
it is flooded with new converts -- many from Third World nations choosing
Mormonism as a literal self-help path out of despair. These victories, on
the other hand, may be won at the cost of losing many humanist-oriented
converts and members who also seek some institutional democracy, more
transcendence and less engineered lifestyles.
The Mormon church has painted itself into seemingly hapless corners
before, on issues including polygamy and access to the Priesthood by some
people of color. No other mainstream American religious organization has
better demonstrated openness to paradigmatic shifts without losing track of
its core values. In the end it is core values that serve as beacons to the
disaffected and the distraught. Hopefully the Mormon church will transform
itself, again, through revelation, to reach out more effectively through
its core values to Christian humanists, even as it presses ever more
diligently to bring the disenfranchised of the world into its fold.
_________
James E. Sawyer is a political economist and professor at Seattle
University. He grew up in Ogden and graduated from Weber State University
and the University of Utah.
Page Modified: January 30, 2002